A mathematician’s insight during World War II can help guide risk managers today

Vincent Kaminski is a Houston-based professor at Rice University’s Jesse H Jones School of Business

Risk managers working in today's unpredictable markets could learn a lesson from Abraham Wald, a famed mathematician from Eastern Europe who sought refuge in the US during World War II.

In 1943, Wald was working as a professor of statistics at Columbia University, New York City. He made a significant contribution to the US war effort as a member of a secret, Manhattan-based team of distinguished e